A ferry with about 200 people sank in a river in Bangladesh today in the second such accident in three days.
The M.V. Raipurasank in the turbulent river Jamuna just off Aricha terminal, about 100 km (60 miles) west of the capital Dhaka, during a severe storm.
Police said only 50 people had managed to swim to safety.
At least 60 people were killed and 30 were missing when an overloaded pasenger ferry sank in a river south of Dhaka on Sunday.
Bangladesh has a history of ferry accidents in which hundreds of people die each year, especially during the stormy summer months. But the exact number of people on board or of victims are never known because most ferries do not keep passenger lists or follow operational rules set by maritime transport authorities, inland shipping officials said.
They said much of Bangladesh's vast ferry fleet has little or no safety equipment, and operators and owners often neglect weather forecasts and shipping rules despite repeated accidents. At least 118 people died in the last major ferry disaster, on the river Buriganga near Dhaka in February.